Thousands of Chassidic Jews filled Rodney Street outside the Satmar shul in Williamsburg Wednesday night for the funerals of two of the victims who were murdered in the Jersey City shootout.
Leah Mindel Ferencz, 33, who co-owned with her husband the kosher supermarket where she was killed, and Moshe Deutsch, 24, her customer on the fateful day, were remembered in tearful services.
Another civilian, Miguel Douglas, 49, a store delivery worker, was also killed by David Anderson, 47, and his girlfriend Francine Graham, 50, who fired into the store.
After the heartfelt service in Williamsburg, Leah Mindel Ferencz’s body was taken to Jersey City for a service close to her kosher market. Hundreds of mourners were waiting for her, many of them crying in the street.
Moshe Deutsch, a rabbinical student from Brooklyn, volunteered at Chai Lifeline, which supports children in bad health and their families.
Robert Jacob Kellner, 60, who came down from Monroe, NY, told the NY Post: “Our hearts are going out to the community. We are bleeding for them. Stop the hate. Stop the fighting. That’s what we can do to make the world a better place. We need to do more good deeds.”
Rabbi Moshe Schapiro, the co-director of Chabad of Hoboken and Jersey City, told Chabad.org: “People have been asking how they can help. We want to make sure that the three young Ferencz orphans have whatever they need in the days, weeks and months ahead.”
Rabbi Schapiro is heading a fund established by Greenville, Jersey City, Jewish community leaders, to help Ferencz’s family.
“The family’s source of income, the small grocery store, is completely devastated. This family needs a lot of help now,” he said.
Emergency funds to pay for the victims’ funerals are being collected at JerseyCityVictims.com. As of Wednesday morning, more than $47,000 have been collected. The contributions will be supervised by Laizer Breuer (Principal, Mosodos Greenville), Moshe Eidles (Administrator, Mosdos Greenville) and Rabbi Moshe Schapiro.
The funeral for Jersey City Detective Joseph Seals, the first victim of Tuesday’s shooting spree, will be held next Tuesday, according to the New Jersey State PBA. A funeral mass will be held on Tuesday at 10 AM at Saint Aedan’s Church at 800 Bergen Avenue in Jersey City.
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal attended services in memory of the victims and thanked police officers for their sacrifice. Fulop called the shooting an anti-Semitic hate crime. He said surveillance video shows the suspects targeted the Jewish kosher market Tuesday afternoon.
Both shooters were killed.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and state and federal law enforcement officials on Wednesday held a press conference in which Grewal reported that as soon as the shootout had ended, law enforcement began processing the scene for evidence, which they are currently reviewing, seeking indications of the shooters’ motives.
Despite the fact that several high ranking public officials, including the mayors of Jersey City and New York City, have dubbed the shooting anti-Semitic, Grewal said: “We are not in the position to say definitely why the suspects decided to stop in front of the supermarket and begin firing immediately.”
Grewal also called on individuals with additional information to call the New Jersey State Police at 609-963-6900.